Gary Neville concedes the Manchester United team were not shocked when Cristiano Ronaldo left the club for Madrid, claiming the weather in England was a ‘big problem’ for him.
The Portugal international made a then world-record £80million move to Santiago Bernabeu in 2009, having hinted a year earlier – after the club’s Champions League final victory over Chelsea – that he was ready to leave.
Neville says the team were prepared for his exit as a result and he never tried to convince him to stay at the club, having sensed that he had his heart set on a transfer move to sunny Spain.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville said: ‘I think because he did the interview after the 2008 final where he sort of alluded to the fact that he was going, it was almost like you had an advanced warning.
‘So you were almost ready-prepared for it, you knew he was leaving the year after. It was coming, it was obvious that one day he would want to go and experience Madrid and La Liga.’
On whether he tried to persuade Ronaldo to snub Real, Neville continued: ‘I didn’t speak to Cristiano for instance about him staying at the club for longer. I think I may have said to him during the year when he was maybe… the weather was a big problem for Cristiano.
‘I think he also wanted to obviously live in Spain and do La Liga. But the weather was a big problem for him and I felt like he’d almost travelled his path, he’d done the journey. And I didn’t feel that anything I was going to say was going to bring him out of that.
‘I think generally with players that were leaving there were very few who were leaving to go up. Now Cristiano you could argue going to Real Madrid and winning four or five European Cups is a step for him where he wanted to challenge himself.
‘The players that were leaving mainly were because they had come to the end of the road for one reason or another, either their contracts had run out, or their age was getting too much, or the manager had had a word with them saying they’re not going to play football too much anymore.
‘Most of the players that left Man United would have wanted to stay. Let’s be clear, 99% of the players that left Man United during the time I was there would have stayed if the manager had said you’re staying. There’s only the one or two per cent who left against the wishes of the club.’
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